Russian tanker trade

Published:

17 December 2004 02:19

Updated:

12 November 2012 11:36

There is much attention being focused on the tanker trade to and from Russia. Existing trades are expanding, new trades are developing in the northern and eastern areas. But there are problems with congestion, ice conditions and draught limitations to deal with.

Fortunately the number of tanker incidents in connection with oil transportation from Russia has declined in line with tanker incidents in general despite the strongly increasing transportation requirement.

Based on figures from Fearnleys, for the first half of 2004 (1H04), the tanker traffic from the Baltic has (from a deadweight share) increased by 225% since 2000 and by 150% from the Black Sea. The aframax segment accounts for most of the increase, representing 80% of the Baltic trade (up from 66% in 2000) and 45% of the Black Sea trade (up from 34% in 2000). The panamax segment has declined the most, from a 24% share in the Baltic and a 19% share in the Black Sea to a 6% share in both areas in the first part of 2004. Total trade 1H04 was 47.4 million deadweight (m dwt) out the Baltic and 55.2 m dwt out of the Black Sea.

The average age of the fleet transporting oil from the Baltic and Black Sea has been declining strongly from 12.8 (Baltic) and 15.4 years (Black Sea) in 2000 to an average of 6.2 years (Baltic) and 10.2 years of age (Black Sea) in 1H2004, meaning that the majority of tankers used are now double hulled.. The average age of the panamax segment in these trade was 14.4 and 13.5 years old, whereas the average age of the aframax segment was 5.3 in the trade from the Baltic and 11.8 years old in the trade from the Black Sea.